South Korea to import more GM crops
Skyrocketing food prices are forcing South Korea, which only grows about 25 percent of the grain it needs, to switch to GMO crops. The government even increased the allowed imports of GM corn to 1.2 million tonnes for 2008.
South Korea, the world’s third-largest corn buyer, imported 330,000 tonnes of
GMO corn for food use for the first time in May and June, and this year’s total
may rise to 1.2 million tonnes, or about 60 percent of the total demand from the
food sector, a Korea Food and Drug Administration source told
Reuters.
That is far above the 500,000 tonne volume floated several
months ago by the major buyers, who had indicated they would take a measured
approach to shifting to cheaper GMO crops rather than risk a massive consumer
backlash in one of only two Asian nations – along with Japan – that had stuck to
non-GMO foods.
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